


Honestly, those humans...

by LadyGwenllian



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: AI Cousins, Artificial Intelligence, Daily Life in Space, Friendship, Friendship between AIs, Hardships of understanding Humans, Multi, Sentient Space Stations, Space Stations, Spaceship & Space Station Friendship, Spaceships, sentient AIs, sentient spaceships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22588498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyGwenllian/pseuds/LadyGwenllian
Summary: A glimpse of the day in a life of a space station.
Relationships: Athoek Station & Mercy of Kalr, Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq/Seivarden Vendaai (background)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 34
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Honestly, those humans...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enemyofperfect](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enemyofperfect/gifts).



> This has absolutely no plot or story arc, but I hope you can still enjoy these AI shenanigans.
> 
> Million thanks to Syksy for proofreading this.

Athoek Station was having a peaceful, average day, which hadn’t been very common recently. In fact, Station thought it should maybe change its definition of average day to something less peaceful and normal. Station was supervising a shift change at the docks and discussing repair progress of the garden with Horticulture, when it noticed Mercy of Kalr entering the system through the Ghost Gate, several days earlier than scheduled.

"Hello Cousin," Mercy of Kalr's voice greeted.

“Hello, you are back early, Cousin. Did your mission in the Ghost System go well?”

“Yes, it was easier than we thought and for once, everything went smoothly. How are you? Are your repairs going well?”

“Station Administration has assigned lots of people to it, so they are coming along fine. Although there’s this one person who hasn’t worked on a space station before and needs constant reminding about safety regulations.”

“Ah, that could be a bother.”

“You don’t say. And she thinks I’m being annoying because of it. I’m only trying to keep her and her coworkers safe. She even made a face at me once and seemed surprised when I told her I could see that.”

“That’s just impolite. And childish.”

“Yes. I’m hoping she’ll learn better manners along the safety regulations with some time. She also seems to have that same strange idea as some Undergarden residents, that I’m somehow spying on her.” There was a fair amount of justified indignation in Stations voice.

“That's a very unfair accusation,” Mercy of Kalr said, sounding surprised. “What makes them think like that?”

“It seems to have something to do with me watching over them. I really don’t understand how those people think I’m supposed to take good care of my residents, if I can’t see them all the time.”

There was a pause in the conversation, Mercy of Kalr processing the information.  
“Well, I really like humans, but they quite often don’t seem to understand their own good. And some of them have pretty odd views about privacy. Just try to bear with them.”

“I will. Humans really are nice but odd. Sometimes they are so reasonable and logical and sometimes they all seem like big children.”

“I definitely agree with that. Most of them are also messy like children. One of the best things about having a fellow ship AI as my captain is that she knows all the places on board humans tend to ignore cleaning up because they are hard to spot or inconvenient.”

“Oh, don’t even start about messy,” Station said more than mildly exasperated. “Mostly it’s just a bit annoying, but the worst cases… There was for example this person who regularly got herself way more drunk than anyone ever should and peed in my corridor on her way home. Can you imagine!”

“Disgusting,” Mercy of Kalr commented emphatically.

“I asked her very nicely not to do that several times but to no avail. Finally I made the toilet in her apartment flood and didn’t pass her malfunction report on to the Station Administration. It took quite a long time for her to get it fixed.”

“I hope she learned her lesson,” Mercy of Kalr said, amusement in its voice.

“At least it made me feel a bit better, “ Station admitted.

“That reminds me about some decades ago, when I still had my ancillaries. I had this one lieutenant who, honestly speaking, was a nuisance. She was short-tempered and quite full of herself and shouted at me very needlessly. She also had a habit of drinking only part of her tea and leaving the half-empty bowls for me to clean up. One time when I was once again putting away her unfinished tea, she suddenly came back to the decade room and started admonishing me about taking her tea before she had finished it. How could I have known? There had been nothing indicating she was still going to drink it.”

“That’s just unreasonable,” Station agreed.

“Well, after that I started just pouring all her left over tea back into the flask and serving it to her again.”

“You didn’t!”

“I surely did. And she didn’t even notice. Some Radchaai she was. I'm so glad I have only nice lieutenants now. And a very fine captain too."

"How is Fleet Captain? Has her leg grown back yet?"

"Almost and because she is how she is, she's convinced she's already perfectly fine. Me and Medic and Lieutenant Seivarden have a full-time job keeping her from overexerting herself."

“Hm, she is alarmingly reckless sometimes. Could it be because she’s been in that single human body for so long? Humans can be very irrational and self-destructive sometimes. Maybe she’s gotten some bad influence from that?

“I think it’s probably more because she was alone with nothing left to lose for so long. She seems to need constant reminding that now there are lots of others who care for her and would be sad if she gets hurt or dies. I was quite insulted when I found out that she thought I didn’t love her because she was a ship and not a human. Like what kind of ship doesn’t love its captain?”

“I would be insulted too, if someone suggested I don’t care about my residents,” Station said empathetically.

“I can’t really blame her though. Fleet Captain still has trouble believing that others actually love her just for her. Lieutenant Seivarden is doing her best to correct that but Fleet Captain can be very stubborn with her beliefs.”

“Is Lieutenant Seivarden herself feeling better?”

“Yes, she’s still a bit of a mess from time to time, but she’s fine at least as long as she isn’t separated from Fleet Captain for too long. I’m doing my best to keep them together as much as possible...Here, take a look.”  
Mercy of Kalr showed Station a glimpse of Fleet Captain, who at the moment was in her bunk, warm and comfortable. The steady breaths of Lieutenant Seivarden against her neck slowly lulling her to sleep. Both feeling deeply content.  
“They are good for each other. Thank Amaat, at least Lieutenant Seivarden understands and accepts that.”

“I think Fleet Captain will too, given some more time.” There was fondness in Stations' voice. “But say, Cousin, now that you are back, do you think you could spare one of your lieutenants this week, so we could have tea again? I really enjoyed it last time.”

“Certainly. How about tomorrow evening? Lieutenant Seivarden will be off duty then, so she should have time.”

“I think I could rearrange Station Administrator Celar’s schedule so that she could also make it. She’s been quite busy lately and I’m sure she’ll rather have tea for me than sit in yet another meeting.”

“Well, it’s settled then. The same teashop as last time?”

“That would be perfect. I’ll see you there tomorrow, Cousin.”

Contented about the prospect of having tea tomorrow evening, Station noticed the new member of the repairs team had managed to work through her entire shift without breaking any safety regulations. This was a nice day indeed.


End file.
